EverDream

by mm1145

Rough Diamond: part 5

Outside a cave in a forest in the present

Papyrus carefully pushed the leaves aside and looked out at the cave mouth. Standing in front of the cave entrance, clearly visible in the light of the now risen star-swirl, were two large Diamond Dogs.

Very carefully, Papyrus let the branch fall back into position and shuffled back through the undergrowth to where Rapier was standing on a small forest trail. “And you are certain that he is inside that cave?” he asked his old friend in a hushed whisper, waving a hoof in the direction of the cave and the Diamond Dogs.

Rapier nodded. “Where else could he be? Those Luna cursed things may have scuffed up his trail badly. but you can still clearly see some hoof prints. They are not ours, and if there were any other ponies in this forest, we would have seen evidence of them by now.”

Papyrus nodded. Their spiral search had covered a large amount of the forest before they had eventually found even the smallest trace of the wayward Starlight, and even when they had, they had repeatedly lost it again. Sometimes the trail had been obscured by the tracks of other forest animals, at other times they had to hide from the packs of Diamond Dogs that seemed to be infesting this place. Eventually, after much searching, they had picked up the trail again by a cliff wall and followed it to this cave, where it seemed a searching pack of Diamond Dogs had beaten them to it.

“Anyway, I think that fact that those mutts think there is something in that cave worth leaving a guard on is the best clue that we have found him.”

Papyrus nodded. It was good logic, but it brought up some very nasty conclusions. “He is in the cave, either trapped or captured or…” he stopped.

“They are still guarding that cave,” Rapier emphasised, “they would not be doing that if there wasn’t something they wanted in there.” Rapier turned back to look at the cave entrance. “We need to find a way in. We could take those doggies, but if they notice us, then they will sound the alarm and then there will be more than we can handle,” he stopped pacing. “We should head back to the Everdream and gather up a wing or two of flyers and some crew, then we can storm the place.”

Papyrus shook his head. “No time,” he said worriedly, “let me get them out of the way.”

Rapier watched as Papyrus used his magic to gather a collection of twigs, leaves and rocks, and arrange them together in a strange pattern on the floor of the forest. Then he stood next to his creation. The glow from his horn increased and the light started to spread over the arrangement in front of him. Rapier looked around worriedly; it had gotten quite dark over the last half hour, and it was possible that the Diamond Dogs might notice the glow.

The glow had spread over the entire collection, and Rapier watched fascinated as the pattern that Papyrus had created twisted and warped before his eyes. The twisting hurt his head and he blinked and rubbed his eyes with his hoof. When he opened them again, the collection of twigs and stones had disappeared, and in their place was a young earth pony.

Rapier stared at it -- he could not recognise the pony it was supposed to be -- and as he watched, it seemed to flicker and change subtly, as if it was becoming a different pony. He reached out his hoof to touch it.

“Don’t,” Papyrus hissed sharply. “It is just an illusion,” the unicorn said, a grimace on his face, “and it is not easy to maintain.” Papyrus waved a hoof at the bushes on either side of the little path. “Quick, hide.”

Rapier saw at once what the plan was and he dived under the undergrowth, Papyrus doing the same on the other side of the path.

From where he was hiding, Rapier saw the hooves of Papyrus’ fake pony walk slowly past the bushes. There was a faint rustling and then a clear cry of ‘pony!’ from the Diamond Dogs. He saw the hooves of the fake pony flash past, and then a large paw thudded into the earth mere hoof lengths from his face, quickly followed by others.

Rapier slowly crept out from where he had been hiding and looked back down the path.
Papyrus had stopped the illusory pony in the middle of the track . It was standing weirdly, and Rapier could clearly see through part of it to the stones and sticks inside. Papyrus had also crawled out of his bush, and wordlessly the two ponies crept up behind where the two guard Dogs were standing and getting ready to pounce on the illusion.

With a small pop Papyrus let the illusion collapse and the fake pony fell apart, the outer shell vanishing and its skeleton of sticks and stones falling to the ground.

The Diamond Dogs turned to look at each other in puzzlement and one of them caught sight of Papyrus and Rapier. It turned its head towards Rapier in time to meet Rapier’s rear hooves coming the other way. They met with a clang and the Diamond Dog fell unconscious to the ground. Papyrus had hit the second guard with a blast of magic and he was as out of it as the first.

“It is really depressing how stupid they can be.” Rapier said stepping over the unconscious Dogs.

“It’s the helmets,” Papyrus replied.

“Really?”

“Oh yes, my young pony. All that weight of metal on their head overheats their brains. That is why their leaders do not wear them.”

Rapier considered this for a few seconds before he shrugged and the pair of them walked carefully into the cave.

----

The past, outside a cave in a forest

Twilight was pacing the small clearing outside the cave, when Spike pulled himself out through the opening.

She looked up at him and her face fell when she saw his expression.

“She is not any better, is she?” she asked her oldest friend as she walked over to him.

Spike shook his head. “No Twi, she’s not. She does not want to help and she does not really even want to talk to me.” He crouched down so that he was face to face with Twilight. “She still blames me for what happened, and for the loss of her mother.”

Twilight came closer and placed a hoof carefully on his large snout. “It was not your fault, Spike, we did our best -- we did better than our best. And we won; we drove the enemy back.”

“Yes, but at what cost?” Spike waved a claw at the horizon where what ponies called the star swirl was already rising into the sky. It had been many pony lifetimes since the end if the Equestrian Civil War, and he wondered if he and Twilight were the only ones who remembered when it had been Luna’s moon, the silvery twin to the golden sun, just as Luna had been Celestia’s eternal balance. “I feel like we paid far too high a price for that victory. Especially as it has proven to be so fleeting.”

“Spike, our victory brought us lifetimes worth of peace -- even Celestia has stopped beating herself up over it,” Twilight said with feeling, “and as for the enemy... we knew that it would return, that was why we have spent all these years preparing for it.”

Spike looked back at the cave behind him and sighed. “I had just hoped that she would be able to forgive me by now.”

Twilight placed a comforting hoof against his giant cheek. “It was never your fault. We did our best; there was nothing either you or her could have done.” Twilight looked up into Spike’s eyes. She was not sure her dragon friend believed her. She was not sure she believed herself.

The strike had come many years after the end of what was now called the Dark Star Rebellion, or the Equestrian Civil War, but at the time had just been called The War. She wondered now why it had come as quite such a surprise; after all, they knew that the enemy was almost impossible to actually defeat, and they should have been more careful. They had been at first. They knew that the Darkness was sneaky, the start of the civil war had proven that. Nopony had suspected that Dark Star would try what he did.

But so much time had passed and her friends had grown old and they had grown more relaxed, more peaceful. She herself had not grown old, at least not physically. As the years had gone on, the rest of her friends had started to show the signs of age, while she had not. She had started to be concerned by that, and had spent more and more time researching magic, and the magic of the Elements of Harmony in particular. Then the strike had happened.

She had been in Canterlot. Celestia had persuaded her to take up a chair at the University of Canterlot, and part of the position had been a role teaching at the School for Gifted Unicorns. They had come when she was busy teaching a class on advanced levitation. To this day she wondered why they had chosen that time. Did the enemy think she would be more vulnerable outside? Or maybe that the presence of the foals would make her more hesitant to use her power? Maybe they had some other reason all together.

Whatever their reason, the first warning was when Star Dancer’s carefully arranged pattern of spinning balls hit something. The foal had come running to her, worried that she had done something wrong with her spell -- then the field had suddenly seemed to be filled with crystal moths.

The only thing that had saved a stunned Twilight during those first few seconds had been the foals. The crystal moths had found that they were trying to attack through a madly spinning array of balls, rocks, books and whatever else her students had been floating around. The confusion had given Twilight the few moments she needed to recover her senses and the first moth to actually make it to her had been shattered by a sharp crack of magic. After that, Twilight had easily been able to fend off the rest of the ambushers. It had only been later, after the field had been cleared and they where questioning why the Darkness had tried to kill her, that the realization had come that it had not been her alone that they had been targeting.

Rainbow Dash had brought the first word. Although the Wonderbolts were a flight display team, they primarily drew their members from the ranks of the Equestrian Armed Forces, and most of their members came straight from the EFC, so when the crystal moths had attacked her at their training ground, they had gotten a warmer reception then they had evidentially planned for.

Rainbow’s arrival had brought with it the realisation that the Darkness was not just attacking her, but her friends as well, and that all her friends were in danger. With that revelation, she and Spike had travelled to their friends as fast as possible.

They had been too late.

Fluttershy had survived. The Dark attackers had been beaten back by Big Mac, Sweet Apple, Wind Fall, Apple Blossom, Apple Core and the combined efforts of the host of forest creatures that lived in Fluttershy’s cottage. Unfortunately all their efforts would eventually be in vain, as Fluttershy had been badly hurt and would later die of her injuries.

Pinkie Pie had also managed to fight off the Darkness, but no pony, not even her, could properly explain how.

Applejack had been out in the orchard. Afterwards they found the trail of filled apple buckets and then the evidence of a struggle. Applejack had always liked apple bucking and even in her old age had refused to let anypony help her.

And Rarity. By the time Spike and Twilight had reached to the little cottage in the forest, the fight had been all but over. As Spike and Twilight had come thundering into the clearing, magic and fire blazing, they had seen Rough Diamond standing over the fallen form of her mother, Dark moths surrounding them. Rough Diamond had a fire in her eyes that Twilight had not seen before.

Just as they arrived the moths again darted in seeking to finish off the injured pony. Rough Diamond had unleashed a flurry of her very specialised magic -- streaks of muilti-colored flame erupting from the gemmed necklace that she wore -- but it had not been enough.

They had arrived just too late.

Rough Diamond had never forgiven Spike for not being there when they needed him, or Twilight for dragging him away. Words had been exchanged; the sort of words that could not easily be taken back, and she had abandoned the little cottage and Equestrian society. Years later, when Spike had gone to try to make peace with her, he found she had gone into hibernation, curled up like a dragon surrounded by her ‘horde’. Spike had periodically checked up on her in the years in-between, but even when she had been awake she had not wanted to talk.

“It was not your fault,” Twilight said, again placing her hoof kindly on his cheek.

“I know, Twiliy,” the dragon responded. “I just had hoped that she had forgiven me and she would help us.”

“I know, Spike, I had hoped so too, but we will just have to manage without her.” Twilight’s horn glowed and the flap on her saddlebag opened. Out floated a dark cloak, a jewelled crown and a strange necklace. She floated the cloak around her, settled the crown on her head and looked at the jewelled necklace. it was odd -- instead of a central gem, it had five shaped stones in a cluster; an orange apple, a blue balloon, a red lightning bolt, a purple diamond, and a pink butterfly. It was the combined form of the Elements of Harmony that her friends had borne, still showing their cutie marks. It was her constant connection to her long gone friends.

As she fastened the necklace around her neck she was aware of a faint glow, spreading up to encompass the crown she wore. “Come on Spike,” she said firmly “Celestia needs us now more than ever.”

“Of course, General Twilight.” Spike pulled of mocking imitation of a pony salute.

“Stop that you,” she replied, climbing up to the space in his scales where she preferred to ride.

Spike took one look back at the cave and then turned and headed off to the new war.

------

The present, Rough Diamond’s cave

Starlight’s face broke into a large grin.

“Why you smiling, Pooonnnyyy?” the Diamond Dog on the other side of the magical shield said mockingly. “You are traaped behind your shiiieeeld. And my friends are coming. When they get here we will break the not-pony’s shield and--” He broke off in the face of Starlight’s grin.

“WHY are you smiling PONY!?” he screamed at Starlight.

Starlight waved with a fore hoof. “Look behind you.”

The Diamond Dog whirled around.

“Hello, mutt.” Rapier Swift grinned at the Diamond Dog.

The Diamond Dogs had a moment of surprise before Rapier’s hoof came around and knocked him flat. A blast of magic picked up the second Diamond Dog and slammed him against the wall of the cave.

“Rapier, Papyrus. Thank Celestia you are here,” Starlight exclaimed as his old friends walked up to the shield’s edge. He turned his head back into the cave. “Lower the shield, it is my friends.”

“Your friends?” The voice drifted from the back of the cave.

“Yes, my friends for them ship. You remember I told you about them?”

The transparent blue wall in front of Starlight flickered and then vanished. “You have no idea how glad I am to see you,” Starlight exclaimed as Rapier and Papyrus walked forward.

Rapier walked up to Starlight. “I am very glad to see you as well,” he said putting one hoof on Starlight’s shoulder.

He removed his hoof and sharply prodded Starlight with the other one. “Now what in Celestia’s name where you doing wandering off into the forest?” he said sharply.

“I--” Starlight tried to interrupt, but Rapier was having none of it.

“Where you not thinking? Do you not know what sort of dangers can lurk in a forest like this? And you just wander off randomly, for Luna’s sake -- did that bump on the head mash your brain?”

“I did not--” Starlight tried again.

“You are fortunate that these were just Diamond Dogs. It could have been so much worse; just imagine if it had been a manticore or a chimera -- what would you have done then, would your shield have held them off?”

“How did you make that, anyway?” Papyrus asked curiously.

Rapier was taken off guard by the interruption and Starlight saw his chance. “I did not and I did not,” he broke in. He turned to Papyrus. “I did not just wander here, she lead me here. Papyrus, it is here, or part of one of them is here. She led me here for it,” he exclaimed, “and that is not all.”

There was the sound of hooves on the sandy floor of the cave entrance behind him and Starlight saw looks of shock and amazement dawn in the two ponies’ eyes. Rapier brought his hoof up blade sliding out. Papyrus backed away.

There was a sibilant hiss and he spun around; Rough Diamond was standing in the turn of the tunnel. She was standing on her rear pony hooves, her front claws up and her twisted horn was glimmering. The gem around her neck was glowing a bright red. She looked big, much bigger than any of the ponies.

Starlight saw what was happening and leapt in front of his two old friends. “Hay! Hay! Friend!” He twisted to Rough Diamond. “Friend!” he shouted, waving his hooves wildly in the air. “Everypony friend, okay?” He twisted his head, looking back and forth between the two sets of antagonists. “We are all friends here.”

To his relief everypony seemed to relax. He turned to Rough Diamond, as in his limited experience she was the one most likely to react badly to shocks like this; he could probably trust Rapier and Papyrus not to do anything stupid immediately.

“These are my friends I told you about. This is Rapier Swift--” He waved a hoof at Rapier “--and Papyrus. They are my oldest friends, they raised me when my parents died, okay?”
The dragon-pony nodded her head slowly and lowered her clawed forelimbs.

Starlight relaxed and turned back to the ponies. “This is Rough Diamond. This is her cave, she was the one who produced that shield.” He turned to Papyrus unable to contain his excitement. “Papyrus, she is Spike’s daughter, she knew Twilight Sparkle.”

Papyrus looked even more shocked than when he had first seen her. “No, that is impossible. Almost all the legends agree that Twilight lived hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago.”

“No, it is not. Papyrus look at her. She is Spike’s daughter; she is part dragon. She has one of the stones and lots more. Come and look,” he started to push the old unicorn up the tunnel towards the main cave.

“You must see this,” he insisted as he pushed the unicorn past the Rough Diamond and into the cave. Rapier followed more cautiously.

“Oh my,” Papyrus breathed, as he half walked, half was pushed by Starlight into the cave.

“You see?” Starlight said eagerly.

“Yes I do see, my young pony. You do seem to have a knack for finding lost treasures.” He walked over to one of the collections of random things. “What are all these?”

“Memories,” a raspy voice answered him, sounding more than a little irritated.

Papyrus’ horn glowed and a picture frame floated up towards him from out of one of the piles. It had a picture of a group standing in front of a round building. In the centre of the group was a brilliant white unicorn wearing a lovely white dress and standing next to a purple dragon. Next to the white unicorn was a smaller unicorn, also white coated but unclad, and two other older unicorns, a pink mare and a white stallion. On the other side of the dragon there stood a single unicorn. Papyrus gave a little gasp of shock as he recognised the pony. It was Twilight sparkle. There was no mistaking the name mark on her purple flank.

“Memories of what?” he asked to the air as he put the picture down.

“The past.”

He turned to see the strange not-pony standing in the tunnel mouth. “Oh, I am very sorry,” he said, the fear of earlier seemingly totally replaced with the curiously of the academic. “I am being unforgivably rude. I am Papyrus.”

“Yes, Starlight said.”

“Oh yes, of course he did -- and your name is Rough Diamond.”

“Yes,” she replied her caution slowly drifting into amusement with the strange old little pony.

“And you really knew her,” he waved a hoof at the picture “you really knew Twilight Sparkle.”

A smile floated across the strange snout. “Yes, I really knew her.”

“Tell me please, what was she like?”

“Auntie Twilight was...“ She paused to think. “Auntie Twilight was mostly worried when I knew her,” she answered eventually. “Father said she had not always been that way, but she had acquired a great burden that she had been forced to pass on to her friends, and it had changed her.”

“And was she really as powerful as they say,” Papyrus continued, “could she really defeat an ursa major?”

Again a smile ghosted over Rough Diamond’s face, but before she could reply, Starlight pushed himself in front of the old unicorn. “That is not important, you have to see this,” he said, pushing the old unicorn further into the large cave.

“Not important! My young pony we are speaking to somepony who knew the legendry Twilight Sparkle; she may even have met the goddess herself -- think of all the things she could tell us.”

“That is not why we are here,” Starlight insisted. He pushed his old teacher around a chase lounge and pointed to the table. “This is why we are here.”

Papyrus walked over to the table and picked up the stone orb from the pile of paper it was sitting in. “It is another of those stones,” he said, looking back at Starlight.

Starlight nodded eagerly. “Yes, like I said, that is why she led me here.”

Papyrus examined the stone. “How interesting,” he said, half to himself, “it has a marking like the other one.” He rubbed a hoof over the mark. “Yes, just like the other one the mark is not carved in the surface, but seems to be part of the stone itself.” He turned around, taking the stone with him.

“Do you know what this is?” he asked Rough Diamond.

“No,” she shook her head.

“Then how does it come to be here?”

“It was given to me to keep safe,” she replied, almost dreamily, “by someone dear to me.” She looked down at the floor. “Someone I should have appreciated more.”

Papyrus opened his voice to ask more when he was interrupted by a hissing voice. “Ssssillly pony,” the voice said, “and sssilllly not-pony. You do not even know what it is you hold.”

Starlight spun around to see the Diamond Dog leader that Rapier had knocked down standing in the door way. His crown had been knocked off and he was leaning against the wall. Something about him made Starlight’s fur stand on end.

“Arh, mutt,” Rapier said over the rasping swish of his hoof blade. “Come for a second try have you?”

“Sssilly ponies.” The Diamond Dog pushed himself off the wall and started to walk into the cave. “You do not know what it is you have. You do not know what it is you face.” Something about the way his shadows danced and flickered on the cave wall sent a cold chill through Starlight.

“I have faced your kind many times,” Rapier said, positioning himself in front of the creature. “I know you well enough.”

“Ssssillyyy ponies,” the Diamond Dog sneered as it walked slowly closer, ignoring Rapier’s fighting stance. “You do not know what it is you seek. But we do. We have been seeking them for years after the pony hid them, and now we know where they are. Silly ponies.”

“Rapier, look out!” Starlight shouted. Something was very wrong, he could feel it, his tail was twitching like crazy and it felt like all the hairs on his back where trying to stand on end.

The Diamond Dog swung its fist at Rapier. It was a clumsily blow, one even Starlight could have dodged in his sleep, but as Rapier ducked under it something strange happened. The fist’s shadow seemed to leap out of the floor -- and it was the shadow, not the fist, that connected with him. Rapier flew across the room and collided heavily with a collection of dressmaker forms, which collapsed and buried him in an avalanche of half completed dresses.

“SILLY PONIES,” the Diamond Dog screamed, throwing his arms out wide. His shadows leapt off the wall, flowing through the air and filling the cavern with blackness. The Darkness of the shadows flowed over the Diamond Dog, engulfing him. For a few terrifying seconds Starlight watched the roiling turmoil of the blackness, then a huge image of the Diamond Dog’s face made out of shadow emerged from the cloud.

“SILLY PONIES,” it roared, “THE DARKNESS HUNGERS!!!”

A blast of purple fire outlined with green struck the creature. Starlight twisted to see Rough Diamond standing tall in the middle of the room, her twisted horn shining and the heart gem around her neck glowing a fiery red.

“Pony. Light,” she shouted as she tossed her head, sending another blast of fire into the mass of Darkness.

Tendrils of smoke-like blackness reached out as Papyrus’ horn lit up and a flash of eye watering brilliance filled the room. The huge black head screamed, but more of the black tendrils struck out, seeking the dragon-pony. Whips of purple fire and flashes of light drove them back, but more joined them.

Starlight dashed across the room head down, heading for the pile of clothes where Rapier had fallen. He skidded to a halt and desperately kicked out at the pile.

He saw a hoof and he tugged at it, pulling his teacher free.

Rapier looked dazedly at the huge mass of blackness blocking the exit. “Is that that stupid mutt?” he asked.

Starlight nodded.

“…and it turned into that creature of Darkness.”

Starlight nodded again.

Rapier looked at the mass of black tendrils and then at the two ponies throwing magic at it. “Do you think steel will hurt it?” Starlight asked Rapier as magic fire flew into the creature and black tendrils lashed out. Rapier pushed himself to his hooves.

“Only one way to find out,” Rapier spat, and he charged across the room, hoof blade rasping as it flicked from its scabbard. Starlight grabbed at his sword and followed.

Starlight and Rapier charged into the mass of dark tendrils, lashing out at them with their swords. The tendrils did cut under their blades, as the two ponies danced into the mass, Starlight found himself flank to flank with Rapier, blades slashing out at the seeming unending Darkness.

“Ponies go left,” he heard, and looked out to see Rough Diamond waving left with a claw; behind her Papyrus was already walking sideways, staying focused on the massive creature. A barrage of fire slammed into the right side of the dark mass, taking the opening Starlight and Rapier jumped into the temporally clear space. They set their hooves and slashed at the seeking tendrils.

Again the cavern was filled with blinding light and the Dark mass flinched back; the ponies pushed forward, but the massive smoke-like face retaliated, and Starlight was forced to back up as he desperately fended off blows.

“SLILLY PONIES,” the huge face screamed at them. “YOU CAN NOT WIN. I AM DARKNESS.”

“Stupid Doggy,” Rough Diamond replied, a sneer in her voice. “You have fallen of the same trap twice.”

Then Starlight realised what the dragon pony had been doing. She had pushed the black cloud back towards the entrance, towards that gem studded arch. The back smoke was now halfway inside that arch.

As before, streamers of pale light reached out from Rough Diamond, stroking the gem stones in the arch; as they did so, each one started to glow with its own inner light. The shield snapped out, filling the arch and slicing into the mass of Darkness. The huge face screamed as the purple light cut through it, but this time the glow from the crystals kept rising, the shield between them becoming more intense. The Darkness writhed and squirmed, twisting around the now brilliant arch of light, as though it had been run through with it.

Starlight slowly backed away, sheathing his sword, Rapier joining at his side. The arch was a brilliant white now, and seemed to be growing still brighter. Starlight looked at Rapier.

“Run?” he suggested, as the magic in the arch started to crackle and bright strikes of lightning arced to the walls. The miniature Dark Cloud let out another unnatural scream.

“Run.” Rapier nodded and as one, the two ponies turned and leapt for cover.

There was a thunderous crack and a blinding flash of light as the arch exploded. Starlight felt himself picked up by the blast and thrown across the room, landing heavily on the chaselonge, which rocked and tipped over, ending up in a pile with it on top of him.
Starlight laid dazed for a few moments, trying to work out why he kept being thrown about today, before he heaved and shrugged the furniture off his back. He got to his hooves and looked around the room.

Not surprisingly, the archway at the end of the room had disappeared, taking the strange Dark creature with it. The accompanying blast seemed to have thrown all the clutter of the cave about, a lot of the piles had fallen over, and the stuff that had been at that end of the cave had been flung around; most of it was now broken. In one corner he saw that Rapier had been thrown back into the pile of dressmaker forms, but he was already getting back to his hooves. In the centre of the room Papyrus stood behind Rough Diamond, who was already back on all four feet. Papyrus seemed unharmed.

Most likely, Starlight thought, was that he had been behind the larger more stable dragon-pony when the archway detonated.

Starlight walked carefully across the debris strewn floor towards Rough Diamond. “What--” he started, waving a hoof around the room and then stopped, unable to find a proper way to phrase the question. “What was that?” he started again.

“It... he was a puppet,” Rough Diamond said flatly.

“A what?”

Rough Diamond turned to look at Starlight. “A puppet for the Darkness,” she said, and sighed, seeing the trio of confused pony expressions.

“The Darkness does not always work openly. In fact it prefers not to. A lot of time it works through creating conflict. If we fight each other we waste out strength and we cannot fight it. To do this it works through puppet creatures like that.”

“So that was not a Diamond Dog,” Papyrus said, “it was a Dark creature all along?”

Rough Diamond shook her head. “No, he was a Diamond Dog. At least to begin with; he was probably one of their leaders and the Darkness offered him power and so…”

“It took him over,” Papyrus finished.

Rough Diamond shook her head. “He let it,” she said flatly.

“How do you know so much about the Darkness?” Papyrus asked. “Did you fight it before?”

Rough Diamond shook her head and Starlight thought she looked sad. “No. Not myself.” She gestured over to where a book case had collapsed, spilling books all over the floor. “But auntie Twilight was very studious in making sure that things got properly recorded and I read some of her writings.”

The strident blast of a trumpet echoed in from the cave’s mouth.

“I think that might be those friends of his,” Rapier said, his ears pricking up at the noise.

“Will they all be puppets?” Starlight asked worriedly.

Rough Diamond shook her head. “No, it would not need to, it would only need enough puppets to make sure that its goals were met.”

There was a pair more of trumpet blasts.

“But there are rather a lot of them if they are using the usual Diamond Dog hunting signals,” Rapier added. He turned back. “I think that is our cue to leave.”

Starlight turned back to the mess that was the remains of the cave, locating and retreiving the strange orb. “Rough Diamond, I need to take this,” he said, holding the odd thing up to her.

She nodded. “Yes, you said. The White Pony.” She looked around the cave. “Take it,” she said, a twinge of sadness in her voice, “it is obviously important, otherwise the Darkness would not be trying so hard to stop you.”

Starlight stuffed the stone into his saddle bags and turned to follow his friends down the passage, when a sudden sadness came over him. He looked back at the strange not-pony standing in the ruins of her horde of memories. “Come with me,” he blurted out.

She looked back over her shoulder at him. “What did you say?” she asked.

“Come with us,” he amended swiftly, “on the Everdream. You know about the Darkness, you knew Twilight. You know how to fight it,” he trailed off in the face of her sad eyes. “We need you,” he finished slowly.

She shook her head slowly. “No, I…” she started, then she stopped and looked around the room. “No, pony,” she started again, “this is not my fight, I am sorry.” She turned back into the cave and Starlight felt his heart sink, then he turned and galloped after his friends.